EAB conversions; X

[From: Bruce Nevin (950321 11:23 EDT)]

Happy spring! Dag, thanks for sharing your wonderful news.

( Rick Marken (950320.2200) ) --

Whether they admit it openly or not, EAB researchers have been on
about as wrong a track as you can be on -- behavior-wise. When EAB
researchers incorporate PCT principles into their research, it will no
longer be EAB research; it will be research aimed at testing for
controlled variables. I have a feeling they're going to notice when
this happens; and I don't think they're going to like it one bit.

When we're talking about changes in principles and system concepts, a 180
might be easier than a swerve. The same controlled perceptions, but with
a flip-flop of valuation on some of them -- poof! -- mirror world! I
think that's the sort of conversion experience that Bruce A. sees
possible with EAB folks. Stranger things have been known to happen.

( Bill Powers (950320.1906 MST) ) --

Yes. It's not an easy conundrum. I'll keep thinking about words. I'll
look for my old Liddell & Scott (Greek dictionary).

Problem with "control" is that we think it refers to the controller's
effects in the shared physical world, but it refers only to effects in
the controller's perceptions, presumed to be "of" the world. (Thence
follow certain characteristics of how we perceive interpersonal conflict
and what we do about it--mostly tacit, sometimes explicit negotiation of
what is real and what is not, learning and adoption of convention to
avoid interpersonal conflict and get on with more pressing matters, etc.
But those topics are a digression here.)

There are other problems. It's the continuous self-tempered whirl of the
control loop that should be emphasized in the term for X. "Control"
emphasizes the fact that the difference between two signals is thereby
minimized. This is important, yes, but tempts one to view the loop as
successive steps or stages, gets reinterpreted as "perception controls
behavior" (hey, they match, waddaya want?), and so on.

This is a problem that calls for perseverant and steadfast attention, not
a quick fix. It may be that "control" is now the only practicable term
"for historical and sociological reasons". We'll see.

    Bruce Nevin
    bnevin@Cisco.com (LightStream.com will still work for a while)